The current practice during the construction of dwellings is to complete the rough in plumbing at a bathroom or kitchen plumbing fixture location by providing a stub-out pipe, generally a smaller diameter copper pipe, and sealably capping the exit, so the rough plumbing may be checked for leaks, etc. Then later, when other plumbers return to install the bathroom and kitchen fixtures and if the water is on throughout a dwelling, they spend considerable time shutting off the main water valves and draining the respective stub-out pipes before installing the plumbing fixtures. Time is continued to be lost in turning the main valve on again, and even more time is lost if leaks remain when a plumbing fixture is improperly installed.
A review of possibly pertinent U.S. patents and products offered in the marketplace indicates there are no plumbing parts available which may be installed while the water pressure remains in a stub-out pipe, to provide a valve serving as the standard angle stop valve does, in opening and shutting the water flow to the faucets of sinks or other plumbing fixtures. The standard angle stop valve can only be installed after the water in a dwelling is shut off.
Among the U.S. patents reviewed, Robert M. Sherman in 1979, in his U.S. Pat. No. 4,134,940 in describing and illustrating his humidifier adapater with an audio relief valve, shows in FIG. 4 a piercing element entering a sealed upper end of a filler tube. Mr. Sherman, however, does not suggest in any other way any of the aspects of valve assembly described herein.